Wandering Soul
by BLACKxWHITExHARU
Summary: When Kyouya has a mysterious dream, he stumbles upon an intriguing, free-spirited girl that's literally dying to tell him her tale. But will Kyouya take it seriously, much less do anything about it? Kyouya x OC.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Yo! Peaches here! I've wanted to write this story for about a year now, but I only got around to it recently. It's actually gone through about a dozen plot changes, but I finally decided on this one. It also was delayed by Forgiveness and Black Side Up (go read and review!) and my laziness. I apologize for any OOC-ness. It's, like, what I do.

Anyway, I can't even begin to tell you how much reviews motivate me. And bad reviews make me want to improve! So, if you like it, review. If you think it's okay, review. If you think it sucks, review. But don't do it anonymously, please. :)

Quick shout out to my sensei (you know who you are) for all his support and corrections of my grammar. =3 . Also, a shout out to **snowXgem **for being my buddy! You rock my socks! I heartchu lots!

So, here it is, in all its eight page glory. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. If I did, there would be a lot less Haruhi and a lot more TamakixKyouya. Also, I don't own Facebook.

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**~Normal POV~**

The clock tower downtown chimed 12:15 AM. The wind swirled around a teenage girl's feet and played with her navy blue hair. She pushed her bangs out of her face and looked down at her bright pink sneakers. The girl stood up on her tiptoes and looked around. She was on a street corner far away from any residential areas. The girl had a confused look on her face, as if she had no idea how she had gotten there.

The girl, around sixteen, was shorter than average. She had dark blue, choppy hair which was tied in a side ponytail behind her right ear. Her figure was slim, but not skinny. The only thing notable about this girl was the clothes she was wearing. She was dressed in all black, save her near-fluorescent sneakers and a pair of pale blue fingerless gloves.

The girl started walking with a determined look on her face. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Nora!" and the girl turned around to look at the boy calling to her. She smiled at the approaching figure and waved at him.

"Hi Zeke." Nora greeted the boy with a grin.

"What the hell are you doing so far from your house? It must be at least four miles away, if not more."

Nora sighed. She shifted her weight to her right foot and said, "I know. I'm not really sure how I got here. I guess I started walking on my block and lost track of where I was going." She paused for a moment. "You know what, Zeke? I could ask you the same question. Your house is pretty far away too, if not further than mine."

"I drove. Duh," Zeke said with a smirk.

Nora smoothed her hand over her bangs. "Ass. You know I don't have a car… Or my license."

Zeke pointed at her and laughed. "I know. But if it makes you feel better, I scratched it on my way here."

"Baka," Nora said with a sigh. "Only you. So, what are you doing here anyway?"

Zeke's face quickly fell and he gave her an apologetic glance. Nora winced at his expression. "Never mind," Nora groaned. "I already know. My dad sent you to look for me." Zeke gave a solemn nod and Nora frowned.

"Well, you can head on back." Nora wore a scowl, bitterness tainting her soft voice. "I don't need him watching me all of the time and trying to make me something I'm not. I'll take care of myself."

The look on Zeke's face softened. He walked over to Nora's side and put his arm around her petite shoulders. She shrugged him off and toed the ground angrily. "Nora," Zeke said, "I know it's tough for you to go back. I don't like what your dad does, but you have to think about your sister. What's Annie going to do if you leave? More importantly, what is your dad going to do if you leave? No one's going to be able to protect Annie. You're her only hope."

Nora looked helpless at his words. She grabbed a lock of her hair and started to twirl it nervously. "I guess you're right. I'll go back. But I'm walking. I like having the time to think about things."

"I know you do." Zeke smiled at her. "You really are a strange being, you know that?"

"Yep. See you later." Nora's sneakers clomped against the pavement as she headed back down the street. However, Zeke remained, watching Nora's retreating figure. He ran his hand through hair and sighed. What was he going to do with this stubborn, crazy, wonderful girl?

* * *

**~Nora's POV~**

I slithered down the street, covered by the shadow of night. I didn't want to be seen by anyone, especially tonight. The last thing I needed was for someone to recognize me. Sure, it was a big city, but I spent more time here than I spent at my house and school combined. Most people downtown knew me by my first name.

As I passed by my favorite ice cream shop, open 24/7, I slowed down. I debated whether I should stop inside and buy a medium strawberry cone topped with caramel, my usual, or to continue on. I had to get home to Annie… But I hadn't stopped in for ages. In the end, I decided to go inside, get my ice cream, and stop to say hi to Flora, the girl behind the counter. I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but I'd still say hey. I decided to get a pint of mint chocolate chip for Annie to make up for being gone all day.

I opened the door to the familiar tinkling of a small bell attached to it. Flora greeted me with a smile and headed over to the cash register, already knowing what I would order. I pulled out $2.87 and handed it over to her. After she had put the money safely inside the cash register, she went over to the wall of soft serve machines and found the strawberry dispenser. I picked my favorite seat at the counter and sat down.

After I did so, Flora drizzled caramel on top of my cone and handed it over the counter to my waiting hand. I asked Flora, "Hey, can you get me a pint of mint chocolate chip?"

Flora smiled and asked, "For Annie?" to which I nodded. She swept back towards the dispensers and grabbed a paper pint container.

I licked absentmindedly at my ice cream while thinking about what I'd do if I could read people's minds. If I could read anyone's mind, it would be Zeke's. He was so confusing sometimes. If only I could tell what he was thinking, I think I could finally tell what went through his head. I'd also love to know how he felt about me. I'd known him for four years already and it seems like he liked me, but nothing had happened yet. I began to think about what might go through Zeke's head when Flora tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey Rhymie. Snap out of it."

I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes. "How long was I out for?"

"About five minutes. Your eyes started drooping, so I woke you up. You know, you really should stop zoning out. Someone's gonna sneak up on you sooner or later."

"Well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. And besides, I have a secret weapon, believe it or not."

Flora chuckled. "What secret weapon?"

"My fists of fury, of course." I threw a few fake punches.

This time, she all out laughed. "Okay, whatever you say, Rhymie. I take it you're leaving?"

I sighed and said, "Yeah, I guess so." I shoved the last few bites of my cone in my mouth and reached for my back pocket to pull out a five dollar bill, but Flora stopped me and said, "Don't bother. It's on the house."

I smiled at her. "Thanks Flora."

"No problemo, Rhymie. See you."

I waved back at her and headed for the door. The familiar tinkling of the bell seemed like it was saying farewell. When I was completely outside, I snuck back into the shadows and slunk along like an alley cat.

**~Normal POV~**

As Nora crept through the darkness, a man clad in similar attire to her, all black, sneakers included, followed her footsteps to a T. He was taller than average and extremely muscular. There was a knife strapped to his right hip and a gun in the back of his belt. The typical thug.

However, he kept inching closer to Nora, who started to get fidgety. She nervously looked around every few seconds, as if she knew she was being followed. Her right hand slowly inched towards the top of her left glove, where there was a small knife in a concealed pocket inside. She restrained herself, knowing that if a cop was to come by, she would be in extreme trouble.

The man was only a few feet away when Nora knew she was being followed. She grasped the edge of her glove and felt the wooden handle of the knife. It was when she felt hands on her neck when Nora attacked.

She stabbed the man in the stomach twice and started to run off. Unfortunately, this man had a particularly high pain tolerance. He chased after her, and even though Nora was running as fast as she could, the man caught up to her with ease. He grabbed her around the waist with one hand, putting the other on the front of her neck and said, "I got you, sweetheart."

Nora kicked and screamed, but no one seemed to be around to hear her. She could feel the man's blood coming out of the wound on his abdomen, which was pressed against her back.

"That was a nice trick with your little knife back there, but it's time for girls to go to sleep."

Nora aimed punches for his nose and jabbed at his eyes, but nothing seemed to hit him. She screamed louder, to no avail. Her throat began to hurt, which she took as a sign to scream even louder than she thought she was able to. The man got a more firm grim on her neck, making Nora gasp for air.

"Time for lights out, girlie."

His hand was tightening even more around her neck. Nora began to see bright spots on the edge of her vision as she tried her best to resist his tightening grip. She flailed her legs and attempted to punch him in the face, but he easily dodged her attempted blows. Nora wouldn't give up, but she was getting weaker with every second.

At long last, she slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Thousands of miles away, Kyouya Otori bolted upright in his plush, king-sized bed. His shirt was soaked in sweat and he was breathing heavily. What the hell had just happened?

Kyouya has just had the strangest, clearest, most terrifying dream he had ever dreamt. He had just seen a girl he had never met before talking to a young man named Zeke, eating ice cream, and getting MUGGED. Possibly strangled to death! How was he supposed to react to that? What could he do?

He willed himself to calm down. This situation demanded a clear head and a little determination, not his frantic thoughts induced by the dream he had just had.

Kyouya hurried over to his computer and pulled up his favorite search engine. He knew this would take a long time, but he at least had to try. The glasses-wearing boy racked his memory for any details he could remember that would narrow down his search. At once, he remembered a building Nora had walked past. It had said the name of the county courthouse. Since the boy, Zeke, had said she had lived within a few miles of the city, Kyouya knew that she was in the same county. He typed a name and a county into the box and pressed enter.

Kyouya sighed. _55,072 results. Crap._

_

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_

After hours of scanning through the possible matches to his query, most for Nora's café on the West side, Kyouya finally found what he was looking for.

Nora Weston. Age: 16. Height: 5'4". Weight: 127 lbs. GPA: 3.8. Once played varsity basketball as a freshman in high school, but quit for undocumented reasons. Possibly due to lack of interest after playing varsity. According to her Facebook page (**A/N: **Stalker much?), she didn't have too many real friends, save for Zeke Kaeffer. She was also obviously very out there and somewhat spacey, which he already knew due to the episode at the ice cream shop. Apparently, Nora wrote a lot of poetry and was a talented electric bass player, though it didn't appear as though she was in any sort of organized band to hone her skills.

Now that he knew a lot of the most random things to know about Nora, what did he do with the minimal information he had? How did knowing all of this help the poor strangled girl in the alley?

* * *

**~Kyouya POV~**

By the time I had thought about everything I had seen in my dream, I was physically and mentally exhausted. There was simply too much information for me to digest. Here I was in Japan, while a girl in America had suddenly appeared in my dreams? Maybe it meant nothing at all, but what if it meant something? What if I had a role to play in this?

Oh, who was I kidding? I wasn't one to believe in these things. There was no such thing as coincidences whatsoever. There couldn't be!

But what if there was… I would be responsible for this girl's death. That would live on my conscience for the rest of my life.

Shit.

Against my better judgment, I decided to call the police from Nora's city to ask about her. I just… I needed to make sure. She had to be okay. She had to be.

**~45 Minutes Later~**

I rubbed my temples. This couldn't be happening.

Nora Weston was dying in the local hospital. I had talked to the doctor in charge of her care and he had filled me in on her condition. She was currently in intensive care. Nora really had stabbed that man. She really had been suffocated, long enough to have possibly given her permanent brain damage. The doctor had told me that she probably wouldn't live. Even if she did, she probably wouldn't remember much. I couldn't believe it.

And then there was that crazy, insanely clear dream.

I still had no idea how I was related to Nora. I didn't know how I was involved in this or what I was supposed to do about it. I felt like I needed to act on this, but I had no idea what I could do to help her. She was in America, dying. I was in Japan, attempting to figure out how I could save her.

Tamaki chose that moment to call me on my cell. Idiot. The last thing I needed right now was for him to ramble on about who knows what. I clicked "Ignore" and went back to thinking about what I should do. After about 10 minutes of pondering, the only idea I could come up with, logical or otherwise, was to go to America. This was the best idea I had. Screw all rational thinking.

At this point, I had no idea what I would do when I got to Nora. I wasn't some magician. I couldn't repair any damage that her brain had endured. I couldn't save her. Unfortunately, I had screwed all rational thinking. Damn it.

I heard my phone ringing, and when I looked at the caller I.D., it was Tamaki. Again. Typical. I decided that I might as well answer it, considering that he would keep calling until he got a response.

I hit the "Answer" button and said, "What is it, Tamaki?"

"Kyouya, why do you sound disappointed at the sultry sound of my voice?

I sighed and massaged my temples while I held the phone between my cheek and my shoulder. "It's nothing you need to be concerned with, Tamaki. What do you need?"

"Aww, Kyouya, why won't you tell me anything?"

I met his question with silence.

"Fine. Be that way. Anyway, I think the Host Club should have a cosplay day with pirates! It would be so much fun, and we could pretend that we were on a ship, plundering the seven seas, stealing treasure and the like. And don't you think Haruhi would look ADORABLE in a pirate outfit… Kyouya, are you listening?"

Little did Tamaki know that I had clicked "End." I wasn't in the mood for his crazy ideas. I shut off my phone and went back over to the computer.

I pulled up a travel site, the first one I could think of, and entered the information I needed. I was mostly acting on impulse, something I rarely did. As I hovered over the "Submit" button, I thought about what I was doing one last time. I was really going to buy plane tickets to America, a place that I knew nothing about and had never been to before. To visit a girl I had never met. For reasons I didn't know, since I at least knew that I, of all people, couldn't save her. The more I thought about it, the more insane it seemed. And yet, at the same time, all the more rational.

I clicked "Submit."

And so my fate was decided.

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**A/N: **I feel really, REALLY bad about Nora. Over the months that I've thought about this story, I've really come to love her. In my mind, she's a strong and thoughtful character that's really closed-minded, but she really loves her sister. Fortunately, her story doesn't end here. I can't keep out a character I love so much. :)

Hooray for OOC-ness! Not. I AM SO SORRY. Kyouya will be much more… Kyouya-ish in later chapters! I promise! Anyway, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW PLEASE!

There's now a poll on my profile about this story. So GO VOTE! ^.^

TTFN,  
Peaches =3


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This is my rewrite for chapter 2. It's a TOTAL change in direction from what I had posted before, but I like this one so much better. It's coherent and it fits.

My entire storyline has changed AGAIN. Woot. Also, it is very difficult to write child monologues.

So I present to you… A very short (but sensical) CHAPTER 2!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran.

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As the nurse wheeled a food next to the door of room 372, she heard the voice of a child's whisper, as if she was telling someone a secret. She knew better than to go in when Annie was talking to Nora.

A little girl sat next to the hospital bed inside of room 372. Her face was somber and ashen. It appeared as though she hadn't slept in days. She was holding the hand of the girl in the bed. The girl in the bed wore a hospital wristband with the name "Nora Weston" written on it. The little girl squeezed Nora's hand.

"Hi Nora. It's Annie. Again. You must think my voice is boring by now." Annie laughed to herself, but the half-smile on her face soon faded. "We miss you at home. Daddy's being mean again, but it's getting worse. Every day that you're here, it gets worse. I'll have to start sleeping in the hospital. But don't worry about me! I'll be comfy enough in that big chair over there. You don't know which one I'm talking about, but there's a big, cushy chair in the corner. It's like they WANT me to sleep on it.

"We're don't have a lot of money right now. Dad's trying to get a job pay the bills without using mom's money, but it's not going good. Everyone knows what he does. But we have some people helping us out. Zeke's family and Flora are sending us food and stuff. They know that there's not a lot of money without you, so one of them makes food for us every few days.

"The leaves are changing colors again. Fall started a few weeks ago, but you can see the trees turning orange and red and yellow… It's really pretty. I know you love fall, so I brought you a bright red leaf. How bright? Well, remember that time that you dyed your hair bright red? Yeah, that color. I remember Dad wasn't able to talk. He couldn't even get mad." Annie chuckled again, but her expression turned somber once more.

"I got none wrong on my multiplication table test. I used all of the tricks that you told me and I was the only one that got them all right! My teacher even told me that I can pick a storybook and bring it in and read it to the class tomorrow! I'm going to bring 'A Pocket for Corduroy' because you always used to read that to me when I was little. My teachers said that she'd help me with words I don't know.

Annie looked down and her thumbs and sighed. She adjusted herself in her chair and continued.

"I'm scared, Nora. How am I going to live without you? Who's going to help me tie my shoes or do my math homework with me or read with me or tuck me in before bed or scare away the monsters in the closet or protect me when Dad gets mad?

Annie paused and took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Zeke still won't leave his house yet. I don't know why. I made him a card with glitter and everything, but when I went over to his house, he wouldn't answer the door and he was home and I know that because I saw him sitting in the window. I yelled at him and told him that when you come home, you'll tell him that was mean and MAKE him take my card. So ha! Take that, meany Zeke!

"I have to go do my homework, so I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you Nora!"

Annie hopped down from the chair and wandered out of the room. When she reached the end of the hall, she heard a commotion behind her. She thought that it was too loud and hurried out of the door into the crisp fall air.


End file.
